Personality and Psychometric Tests

Psychometric testing has become widely accepted as a benchmarking
tool to judge people's suitability for a job.

Dedicated to bringing news, technology
and theory to psychometric assessment.

Translate This Page / Diese Seite übersetzen / Traduire Cette Page

Award for psychometric testing research

17 February 2012

Award for psychometric testing research

Research that may settle a long-standing dispute in psychometrics has earned an award for a researcher at The University of Cambridge Psychometrics Centre.

The 2011 Best Doctoral Dissertations Prize from the Psychometric Society was awarded to Dr Anna Brown for her thesis, entitled, How Item Response Theory can solve problems of ipsative data.

Her work was carried out at the University of Barcelona under the supervision of Professor Alberto Maydeu-Olivares and resolves a longstanding and sometimes acrimonious debate in the field of ipsative testing.

A psychometric test is ipsative if respondents are required to compare two or more options and pick the one that is most preferred. Ipsative tests are popular as, by forcing respondents to choose between equally desirable options, they are more difficult to fake.

However, as one problem is solved, another one created as the assumption of statistical independence of the two scales, on which so much psychometric rigor depends, is broken. Ipsative scores distort scale relationships and reliability estimates, and make interpretation of scores problematic.

Anna's research demonstrates how Item Response Theory (IRT) modelling may be applied to overcome these problems.

Follow
Us on Twitter

Got a contribution to
make to
Psychometric Testing News

We're interested in white papers, statistical
information, case studies and informed comment from people and
companies with authoritative views and relevant information.

If you are thinking of changing your job or career,
taking a test can prove invaluable. As an estimated 65 per cent
of employers now ask candidates to take one, taking a test now will
help you to know what to expect during the recruitment process.

It will also help you to decide what career
or type of job is best for you.